Space!

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Alvin Flummux
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PostRe: Space!
by Alvin Flummux » Wed Jul 15, 2020 6:08 pm

Saint of Killers wrote:With how this year is going, one of these are heading right for us:

Nuclear blast sends star hurtling across galaxy

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-53415294


This star is unique because it has all the key features of a white dwarf but it has this very high velocity and unusual abundances that make no sense when combined with its low mass.


SDSS J1240+6710 be like...

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PostRe: Space!
by Preezy » Thu Jul 16, 2020 9:05 am

Maybe the star put the brick on the accelerator pedal.

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PostRe: Space!
by Alvin Flummux » Fri Jul 24, 2020 1:25 am

First image of a multi-planet system around a sun-like star

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The European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (ESO's VLT) has taken the first ever image of a young, sun-like star accompanied by two giant exoplanets. Images of systems with multiple exoplanets are extremely rare, and—until now—astronomers had never directly observed more than one planet orbiting a star similar to the sun. The observations can help astronomers understand how planets formed and evolved around our own sun.

Just a few weeks ago, ESO revealed a planetary system being born in a new, stunning VLT image (http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2008). Now, the same telescope, using the same instrument (www.eso.org/public/teles-instr…vlt/vlt-instr/sphere), has taken the first direct image of a planetary system around a star like our sun, located about 300 light-years away and known as TYC 8998-760-1.

"This discovery is a snapshot of an environment that is very similar to our solar system, but at a much earlier stage of its evolution," says Alexander Bohn, a Ph.D. student at Leiden University in the Netherlands, who led the new research published today in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

"Even though astronomers have indirectly detected thousands of planets in our galaxy, only a tiny fraction of these exoplanets have been directly imaged," says co-author Matthew Kenworthy, Associate Professor at Leiden University, adding that "direct observations are important in the search for environments that can support life." The direct imaging of two or more exoplanets around the same star is even more rare; only two such systems have been directly observed so far, both around stars markedly different from our sun. The new ESO's VLT (www.eso.org/public/teles-instr…anal-observatory/vlt) image is the first direct image of more than one exoplanet around a sun-like star. ESO's VLT was also the first telescope to directly image an exoplanet, back in 2004, when it captured a speck of light around a brown dwarf, a type of 'failed' star.

"Our team has now been able to take the first image of two gas giant companions that are orbiting a young, solar analogue," says Maddalena Reggiani, a postdoctoral researcher from KU Leuven, Belgium, who also participated in the study. The two planets can be seen in the new image as two bright points of light distant from their parent star, which is located in the upper left of the frame. By taking different images at different times, the team were able to distinguish these planets from the background stars.

The two gas giants orbit their host star at distances of 160 and about 320 times the Earth-sun distance. This places these planets much further away from their star than Jupiter or Saturn, also two gas giants, are from the sun; they lie at only five and 10 times the Earth-sun distance, respectively. The team also found the two exoplanets are much heavier than the ones in our solar system, the inner planet having 14 times Jupiter's mass and the outer one six times.

Bohn's team imaged this system during their search for young, giant planets around stars like our sun but far younger. The star TYC 8998-760-1 is just 17 million years old and located in the southern constellation of Musca (The Fly). Bohn describes it as a "very young version of our own sun."

Image

These images were possible thanks to the high performance of the SPHERE (www.eso.org/public/teles-instr…vlt/vlt-instr/sphere) instrument on ESO's VLT in the Chilean Atacama desert. SPHERE blocks the bright light from the star using a device called coronagraph (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronagraph), allowing the much fainter planets to be seen. While older planets, such as those in our solar system, are too cool to be found with this technique, young planets are hotter, and so glow brighter in infrared light. By taking several images over the past year, as well as using older data going back to 2017, the research team have confirmed that the two planets are part of the star's system.

Further observations of this system, including with the future ESO Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), will enable astronomers to test whether these planets formed at their current location distant from the star or migrated from elsewhere. ESO's ELT will also help probe the interaction between two young planets in the same system. Bohn concludes: "The possibility that future instruments, such as those available on the ELT, will be able to detect even lower-mass planets around this star marks an important milestone in understanding multi-planet systems, with potential implications for the history of our own solar system."


https://phys.org/news/2020-07-image-mul ... -star.html

:o :shock:

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PostRe: Space!
by Preezy » Fri Jul 24, 2020 6:34 am

Amazing. But what are the 3 bright spots right by the sun?

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Victor Mildew
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PostRe: Space!
by Victor Mildew » Fri Jul 24, 2020 7:18 am

Preezy wrote:Amazing. But what are the 3 bright spots right by the sun?


Aliens

Hexx wrote:Ad7 is older and balder than I thought.
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PostRe: Space!
by Moggy » Fri Jul 24, 2020 7:28 am

Preezy wrote:Amazing. But what are the 3 bright spots right by the sun?


The sun looks like an eye and so I am guessing the 3 bright spots are a few of the ringwraiths.

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PostRe: Space!
by Preezy » Fri Jul 24, 2020 7:50 am

Hmm, both plausible theories.

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PostRe: Space!
by Moggy » Fri Jul 24, 2020 8:04 am

Preezy wrote:Hmm, both plausible theories.


Combine them. Alien ringwraiths and they are heading this way. :dread:

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PostRe: Space!
by Victor Mildew » Fri Jul 24, 2020 8:09 am

I for one welcome our new pillow stabbing overlords

Hexx wrote:Ad7 is older and balder than I thought.
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PostRe: Space!
by Alvin Flummux » Sat Jul 25, 2020 4:01 am

Preezy wrote:Amazing. But what are the 3 bright spots right by the sun?


Background stars.

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PostRe: Space!
by Vermilion » Sat Jul 25, 2020 8:49 am

Victor Mildew wrote:
Preezy wrote:Amazing. But what are the 3 bright spots right by the sun?


Aliens


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Saint of Killers
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PostRe: Space!
by Saint of Killers » Sat Jul 25, 2020 8:56 am

Moggy wrote:
Preezy wrote:Amazing. But what are the 3 bright spots right by the sun?


The sun looks like an eye and so I am guessing the 3 bright spots are a few of the ringwraiths.


irl lol

And now I want to watch the trilogy.

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PostRe: Space!
by Saint of Killers » Sat Jul 25, 2020 8:57 am

Victor Mildew wrote:I for one welcome our new pillow stabbing overlords


:lol:

*with acid for blood and a mouth-mouth for a mouth.

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PostRe: Space!
by Preezy » Mon Aug 10, 2020 6:59 pm

Just been reading about the new NASA Mars rover Curiosity's plutonium-powered batteries:

https://www.space.com/16679-mars-rover-curiosity-nuclear-power-lifespan.html

Hopefully this little hero will still be driving around when humans eventually set foot on the planet :datass:

Interesting sidenote: the Soviet Union put the same nuclear batteries in some lighthouses that sit within the Arctic Circle, which is pretty cool.

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PostRe: Space!
by Moggy » Mon Aug 10, 2020 7:03 pm

Preezy wrote:Just been reading about the new NASA Mars rover Curiosity's plutonium-powered batteries:

https://www.space.com/16679-mars-rover-curiosity-nuclear-power-lifespan.html

Hopefully this little hero will still be driving around when humans eventually set foot on the planet :datass:

Interesting sidenote: the Soviet Union put the same nuclear batteries in some lighthouses that sit within the Arctic Circle, which is pretty cool.


I wonder who sold it to NASA?

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Alvin Flummux
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PostRe: Space!
by Alvin Flummux » Wed Dec 02, 2020 4:01 am



Cheery thoughts. :dread:

Meanwhile...

A new measurement puts the Sun 2,000 light-years closer to the center of the Milky Way

It’s difficult to figure out where we are in the galaxy. For one thing, we’re in the middle of it all, and a good chunk of our view is blocked by a region of gas and dust known as the zone of avoidance. We can’t simply step outside our galaxy and pinpoint our location on a map. The task is so difficult that it was only a century ago that Harlow Shapley first determined the Sun isn’t near the center of the Milky Way.

Where are we? Cosmically, we’re in our home galaxy, typically known as the Milky Way. The center of our galaxy is marked by a supermassive black hole, which the Sun orbits at a distance of about 30,000 light-years. The official distance, set by the International Astronomical Union in 1985, is 27,700 light-years. But a new study as confirmed we are actually a bit closer to the black hole.

It’s difficult to figure out where we are in the galaxy. For one thing, we’re in the middle of it all, and a good chunk of our view is blocked by a region of gas and dust known as the zone of avoidance. We can’t simply step outside our galaxy and pinpoint our location on a map. The task is so difficult that it was only a century ago that Harlow Shapley first determined the Sun isn’t near the center of the Milky Way.

The best way to determine our location is to measure the position and motion of lots of stars. That’s easier said than done because motion is relative. While nearby stars orbit the Milky Way, so does the Sun, and we can only measure a star’s motion relative to us. Additionally, stars don’t follow the same general orbit. Some have more circular orbits, and others less circular. You need to measure enough to determine an aggregate motion of the Sun relative to the galaxy as a whole. But it is this type of measurement that has given us the official IAU distance.

To get a better measure of our location, the team used a technique known as Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI). This is where an array of widely separated radio antennas work together to observe an object. Since light takes time to travel, the signal from an object reaches each antenna at slightly different times. By timing the signals, the team can pinpoint the location of the object. In this case, the team used the VLBI Exploration of Radio Astrometry (VERA), which has antennas scattered across the Japanese archipelago. VERA can pinpoint the location of a star to within 10 micro-arcseconds, which is roughly equivalent to the width of a penny on the lunar surface.

VERA has measured the position and motion of nearly a hundred stars in our galactic neighborhood. From this, the team determined that the Sun is 25,800 light-years from the galactic center. They also found that it orbits through the galaxy at a speed of 227 km/s, which is a bit faster than the official value of 220 km/s. This is just the team’s first data release, so we can expect their measure to get more precise over time. VERA will also be collaborating with the East Asian VLBI Network (EAVN), which has antennas in South Korea and China. From this, the team will be able to pin down stars to within 0.5 micro-arcseconds. So in the near future, we will be a bit closer to knowing exactly where we are.


https://www.universetoday.com/148997/a- ... y-way/amp/

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PostRe: Space!
by Moggy » Sat Dec 19, 2020 8:08 am

twitter.com/Astro_Jonny/status/1340104467467931649



Aliens :datass: :wub:

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Victor Mildew
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PostRe: Space!
by Victor Mildew » Sat Dec 19, 2020 8:40 am

Aliens uses our bog roll?

Hexx wrote:Ad7 is older and balder than I thought.
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PostRe: Space!
by Preezy » Sat Dec 19, 2020 8:26 pm

It's ALWAYS aliens.

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Alvin Flummux
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PostRe: Space!
by Alvin Flummux » Mon Dec 21, 2020 3:20 am



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